Many ethanol plants add antibiotics such as penicillin,
erythromycin, virgiiamycin and tylosin to fermentation tanks, says the
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
The organization, which is critical of many farming
practices, is complaining that the United States Food and Drug Administration
is not enforcing its own regulations which should be governing this application
of antibiotics.
“Bacterial outbreaks are common in ethanol plants - the bacteria like the warm, moist
conditions and the corn sugar - and can lead to yield (and therefore profit)
losses.” says the institute.
“Antibiotics help keep bacterial counts low, but . . . in
2008 the FDA found antibiotic residues in dried distillers grain (DGS) samples
taken from ethanol plants across the country, results that have been confirmed
by subsequent studies," the institute says.
“As with antibiotics added directly to livestock feed, the
FDA has not restricted the marketing or use of antibiotics in ethanol
production, nor have they (sic) prohibited or limited sales of DGS that are
contaminated with antibiotic residues,” the institute says.
The FDA has ruled, however, that antibiotics used in ethanol
production should be treated as food additives, and thus require FDA approval
before they can be used.
The institute claims that the FDA has not enforced this
ruling and so “the ethanol producers using them, are therefore doing so
unlawfully; and the FDA is violating federal code in not regulating them.”
The institute says the widespread use of antibiotics in
livestock and poultry farming increases the incidence of antibiotic-resistant
bacteria and therefore threatens the health of people.
